Chairman of NATO Military Committee: “If Russia had not invaded Transnistria, Georgia and Ukraine, NATO would not have strengthened its military”

05 May, 2018

If Russia had not invaded Transnistria, Georgia and Ukraine, NATO would not have strengthened its military presence
in its eastern and southern wings, - Czech General Petr Pavel, the chairman of the NATO Military Committee, said at the Stratcom Summit conference in Prague on Thursday.

"If Russia had not invaded Transnistria, Georgia and Ukraine and had not ignoredall international standards, NATO would not have strengthened its military presence in its eastern and southern wings," he said.

does not like the current world order based on western model of liberal democracy and is trying to change it so that to make it more suitable for its national interests.

“Russia does not share the same values as the West, which is why it is dissatisfied with the current world order and leads a confrontational policy against the NATO”, stated Czech General. Czech General Petr Pavel, the chairman of the NATO Military Committee

Pavel named Russia as one of the two biggest challenges for NATO, which has to respond to Russia by sticking together and working on securing deterrent military capabilities.

"Russia is dejected due to the current world order being based on the western-type liberal democracies and wants to change it so that it matches its national model of society more," Pavel said.

He said Russia's focus in its efforts is on hybrid tools, mainly spreading propaganda in traditional media and on social networks.

"Russia wants to shake the way the countries in the West perceive NATO, its objectives and actions," he said.He said Russia's focus in its efforts is on hybrid tools, mainly spreading propaganda in traditional media

"Accounting for the fact that the public is used to perceiving news through headlines and brief messages, artificially created information may seem true,” he added.

The spreading of disinformation is aided by western societies being open, unlike Russia, and the content of news that the public receives being uncontrolled.Pavel says if Russia had not invaded Transnistria, Georgia and Ukraine, NATO would not have strengthened its military

From the long-term perspective, an open society, even though it is more vulnerable, is a better place to live in, because it cares for observance of values and principles. NATO must hold on to this advantage, he said.Soldiers of NATO Response Force (NRF)

At the same time, NATO must reinforce its cohesiveness that Russia strives to erode. It must reinforce its joint defence, which means uphold the commitment of all member states to spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on defence.

"We are signalling to our adversaries that aggression would be expensive and very unlikely to succeed," Pavel said.NATO troops

Reinforcing the military presence in the Baltic and Black Sea regions should also have a deterring effect, he said, dismissing the Russian interpretation of these steps being aimed against Moscow.